Self-study
Tony: A new kind of videocassette has just been developed. ██ █████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ████ ███ █████ █ █████ ██ █████ ██████████ █████ ██████ ██████ █████ ████ ██ █████████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ███ █████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ██ █████████████ ████ ██ ███ ███ █████
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Summarize Argument
Without stating her conclusion directly, Anna argues that switching to the new videocassette will not save rental stores much money. Why? Because the actual videocassette costs little compared to royalties, and buying copies of movies more frequently would require the stores to pay those royalties more often.
Notable Assumptions
Anna assumes the new videocassette will not lead to a large increase in rentals. In addition, she assumes that rental stores routinely wear out videocassettes, or would do so if they switch to the new kind. She also assumes that a savings of far less than five percent is not “significantly more economical” than no savings, and that the royalties paid more often would be paid at a similar price.
24.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ██████████ ████ ██ █ ███████ ██ ██████ ████████ ███████ ██████ ██████
a
The price that █████ ██████ ██████ ███ ███ ██████ ████████ ██ ██████████████ ██ ████████████ ████ ████ ███ ██████ █████ ██ █████ ███████
This explains how the stores remain in business, not why switching to the new videocassette would save them money. If stores pay a small amount for videocassettes to begin with, then Tony’s position is more challenging to defend.
b
A significant proportion ██ ███ ██████ ██ █████████████ █████████ ██ █████ ██████ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ████████████ ███ ████████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ ███████ ████ ██ ██████
This doesn’t imply the stores would avoid paying royalties on those purchases. It’s possible a store pays royalties each time it purchases a new videocassette, in which case this fact would not save rental stores money.
c
The royalty fee ████████ ██ ███ █████ ████ █████ ██████ ██████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ██ █████████████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ███ █████
This weakens Anna’s argument by questioning her assumption that the new videocassette would only save stores money on the physical copies. If stores will also save on royalty costs, their total savings may be much greater than 5 percent.
d
Given a choice, █████████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███ █ █████ ██ █████████████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ██ ████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████
Since it is unknown how rental fees and purchase prices compare, this information is useless. It cannot be applied to video rental stores in total.
e
Many of the ██████ ██████ ████ █████ ██████ ███████ ████████████ ██████████ ███████ ███████ ███████ ████████ ███ ██████ ████
This may explain why the videocassettes get worn out, but does not support either speaker’s argument. Neither Anna nor Tony relies on the rate that videocassettes need replaced for their argument.